How many times have you heard this story? A musician dies, andsomeone offers the widow a sum of money that she cant resist andoff goes the treasured instruments, usually to a dealer, or worseyet, a "collector" that cant pick a lick! A lot of times, theperson selling the instruments has known for years in advance thatthe instrumens were promised to a friend, family member, band mate,etc. I myself was a victim of such an incident years ago. An oldergentleman that taught me how to play music thought enough of me, topromise that his 1943 D-18 was one day going to be mine, because heknew how much I loved him and that guitar. After he passed away, hisson went to get the guitar about a month later, only to be told byhis step mother that she had NO idea where or what happened to it.He later found out it was sold fer a measly $200.00 . Greed, pureand simple. SO, what to do with your instruments when your timecomes when you either CANT play, or you die OR, maybe you have aninstrument that you haven't played in years, since you got a betterone? Here's what I did with most of mine.

In the last 14 years, I have given away 2 guitars, and 3 fiddles,with this provision; When the recipient gets too old or cant playanymore, they have to find a good young musician that they know willtake care of, and PLAY it, and they have to GIVE the instrument tohim/her. They can NEVER SELL IT! If they do, I'm coming back andhaunt 'em to their dying day!

The first one I gave away was a1943 00-17 Mahogany body Martin. Igave it to Rob McCoury because he NEEDED it. He plays lil'"Sweeetness" all of the time, and is on a lot of Del McCoury'srecords. I hadn't picked that guitar since I got my custom builtguitar"Miss Lovely" in 1976. A period of 22 years, so in 1998 Igave it to the person that will own it till? A good trade in mybook.

IN 1972 I was given a fiddle that at one time belonged to theunofficial Poet Laureate of California. It was made in 1835 by anunknown maker, but was it ever a HOSS ! A gentlemn by the name ofRed Craig gave me that fiddle. He was a mechanic by trade, and hewas tuning up my Porsche one day when I spy'd the fiddle case inhis little one man shop. He let me look at it, and I knew right awayit was one great fiddle. He said it was left to his father back inthe 40's , and a lot of people had tried to buy it over the years,but he wasn't interested in selling it. I said, if you ever sell itRed, I'd like first chance at it. He sez, jes what would you do withit? i'd play it I said. The hell you say, Red sez. SO, with that, Ituned it up about half pitch, 'cause it still had the old gutstrings on it, and sawed a lil bit of Sally Goodin fer him. Redsaid, KID you can have that fiddle, because yer the first one totell me the truth, BUT, you can never sell it. You have to give itaway jes like I'm givin' it to you today! Sadly, Red passed away 6months later. Ray Park tried fer yeeears to get it from me, but Igave it to one of the best old time Cowboy singers you'll everhear, Skip Gorman. Skip needed it, and I knew Red would be proudthat I kept my word. Sadly, that fiddle was stolen from Skip a yearer so ago. BUT, I'm working on gittin' it back for him. More onthat in due time.

So now I'm down to 2 guitars, 2 fiddles, and one bass. Where arethey goin? Well, I knew where my custom made Black Forest guitar wasgoing, as I promised it to Russell Moore back around 1997, so in2010 I gave it to Russell when he was at our festival in GrassValley. I also gave my Lewis Conservatory Violin to Hunter Berrythat same year. Probably two of the most emotional time's of mylife, knowing that I would never be able to play the instrumentsthat meant more to me than anything else I owned. That was thefiddle that my Dad paid $25.00 hard earned dollars fer in 1948.Since then I've seen Hunter play it on the Grand Ol Opry, a goodtrade if I do say so. I made the same deal with Russell andHunter. They can never sell 'em, they have to give 'em away. Alongthe way, I found out Jeanie Ramos needed a fiddle to play, so I gaveher a fairly good one to learn on. That left my 1960 00-18 Martinand my 1951 Kay bass. Well, since I was diagnosed with Parkinson's 4years ago, my ability to play any instrument is jes a memory now. Inever promised either one to anybody, and all of the bass players Iknow have better instruments than my old beat up Kay. Also, my 196000-18 Martin is one that I bought at a yard sale about 9 years ago,and I never promised it to anyone either, so the both of 'em arenow on consignment at John Green's Fifth String music store inSacramento. Hopefully someone will come along and fall in love wih'em, and give me a BIG pile of Frog Pelts [ $100.00 bills ] and I'llbe able to enjoy buying a new pair of custom made boots !

A lil story about me giving Rob McCoury "Sweetness". When JuniorBarber [ Dobro player fer the Gibson Bro.'s ] found out I gave Robthat guitar he asked me, you dont happen to have an old Dobro yawanna git rid of do ya? Ha ha ha.

So there ya are folks, that's where my axe's went . I made surethey went to who I WANTED TO HAVE THEM!

The look on the respective faces of Rob, Skip, Jeanie, Russell,and Hunter when I gave them the instruments will live in my memoryforever. That alone is worth more than all of the Gold and Silverthe earth may hold. WHAT do you have planned fer yer instruments?